Purple Fruits
by Steph7085
Summary: People really should watch what they eat. Rodney learns the hard way. Elizabeth learns something new and John gets flustered. Sparky and Rodney.


In a bid to beat the writers block out of me, Hannah554 (with encouragement from me) has challenged me with prompts. To make it fair I'm giving her prompts too - not that she needs them - so it should be interesting, random and hopefully…productive. We shall see.

**The Challenge**

Use the following:

**Words: **sun, dark, purple, table, window.

**Characters: **Elizabeth Weir, John Sheppard, Rodney McKay.

-----

Purple Fruits

-----

Rodney blinked groggily at the table, his eyes widening with shock, outrage and a whole load of other emotions when the top of it formed a face and blinked back. Startled, he sprung back into the chair and toppled it, landing on the floor in a heap then scrambling as far away from the piece of furniture as possible.

"That isn't possible," he muttered convincingly, glaring at the offending object again. It was a round, regular looking, wooden table; chairs rested comfortably around it, some occupied, some not. Nothing remotely special about it, yet, it was smiling at him and the purple fruits that were spread across the surface were dancing.

A pixie wannabe, alien local stared at him worriedly.

Who were they again? His mind tried to supply the answer, but for once in his life, his brain didn't want to work.

"This must be what Sheppard feels like all the time," he groused as he shakily slid up the wall that he had leant on sometime after his scramble away from the table.

"Doctor McKay," a shy voice said from his right. "Are you alright?"

"What?" he asked, bracing himself against the wall and tearing his eyes away from the table top. Was the purple fruit like food supposed to dance like that? No, his mind supplied helpfully, it dances like this. The fruit sprouted legs and started dancing like Ronon did whenever he drank too much Athosian ale.

"You did this too me, didn't you," he snapped at the elf-like woman. She held her hands up in a placating gesture, a look of concern on her face. For some reason he copied her movements and noticed for the first time that his hands were covered in an icky, disgusting looking, purple goo. He desperately tried to wipe the sticky substance off his hands and onto his trousers.

"Master Brovine," the alien girl called out, glancing over to the head of the table. A tall man, who carried an air of command about him, approached the girl and Rodney, his wise eyes taking in the situation. He stepped back when Rodney grabbed a hold of his long jacket and used it as a cloth.

"Oh my," he exclaimed in surprise. "Did the others consume the Jarboa, Liana?"

"I believe they both did," Liana informed him before her face turned curious. "They can't all be the chosen, can they?"

"They are from the city of the Ancestors. We should find them," Brovine stated, turning round to face the group of onlookers who were staring at McKay with a mix of horror, fascination, sympathy and amusement. "Form a search party and look for the missing Atlantian's."

"Wait a minute," Rodney protested, finger pointing at Brovine as he swayed precariously towards Liana. The alien girl quickly stepped forward and held the scientist up. "I…who are you?" McKay questioned, trying to glare the alien leader down. "And why is the table winking at that window?"

Brovine and Liana shared a look before the girl nodded once and stepped forward. Brovine headed out with one of the search parties.

"Doctor McKay," Liana soothed. "We are the Drovai people and you are visiting are homeworld, for trade. The fruit you have ingested….

Rodney chose that moment to promptly pass out.

-----

"It's a beautiful world," Elizabeth stated wistfully, her fingers gently tracing some of the more exotic plant life that lined the pathways through the Drovai woodland. Pinks, lilacs, blues and every over colour made up a variety of flowers and leaves that naturally overran the area. Katie Brown was going to have a field day when she brought her team over to collect some samples.

John was strolling beside her, hands in pockets. He seemed slightly more relaxed than usual, considering they were on an alien world, walking alone through the woods. He was normally more protective than that but she put it down to the fact that the Drovai were incredibly friendly, surprisingly honest and that a mutual trust had broken out between their people.

For a few weeks now teams from Atlantis had been travelling to this world, but it was the first time Elizabeth had been able to meet the people and see the planet, just to seal the deal - as John put it. It was nice to have an ally and friend rather than an enemy. It was a refreshing change.

"Not as beautiful as you," John murmured. Elizabeth stopped in her tracks, her eyes wide and disbelieving as John wandered further along the path.

"What?" Elizabeth breathed, catching herself and speeding up. John barely noticed as he smirked lazily and glanced at the sky.

"Hey, where'd the sun go?" He complained, looking like a baffled child who had lost his crayons. "Why's it dark?"

"John…" Elizabeth uttered slowly, drawing out his name. "It's evening, of course it's dark."  
"Oh yeah," he drawled with a nod, "I forgot." He twisted round to face her and tucked a stray curl behind her ear. Her hand instantly came up and repeated his motion, more than a little concerned, not to mention confused.

"John, are you alright. This isn't…"

"Never been better, Lizabeth," he assured her with his classic flyboy grin, placing his arm around her shoulder to make her start walking again. He didn't move it, and although it felt comfortable Elizabeth's worry increased tenfold.

"I don't think you are," she told him, quickly moving out from under his arm and grabbing his shoulders. She met his eyes and noticed his dilated pupils and slightly flushed expression. "John, I think you've been drugged."

"You worry way too much ya know, I'm fine," he shrugged, licking his lips as he looked her up and down. Breaking out of her hold, he took her hands, interlacing their fingers and pulling her closer.

"John, this isn't like you," Elizabeth protested trying to break free. "We should get you back to Atlantis. Another thought struck her, "Rodney, we have to go check on Rodney."

"Come on Lizabeth, of course I'm me. I can't be anyone else." He looked so confused she softened her look.

"I know you're you, but you don't normally act like this John. Come on, we have to…"

"I always think you're beautiful, and I always want to kiss you," he argued. Elizabeth was so shocked she froze for a moment and John took his advantage. Drawing her closer, he quickly, assertively placed his lips on hers.

Elizabeth squeaked and pushed him away.

"John…"

Rustling coming from further down the path drew her attention. She noticed a small glowing light getting larger as whoever was holding it approached. John pushed her behind him.

"Who's there?" the Colonel practically growled.

"Colonel Sheppard, Doctor Weir…" Elizabeth recognized the voice of Master Brovine and quickly laid a hand on John's arm, stepping around him to face the leader of the Dorvai people. John pouted but waved at the alien man. "I must apologize for intruding on your walk, but there is a situation you must be made aware of."

The alien leader noticed Sheppard's changed demeanour and sighed, "I see you may already be aware."

"What's going on?" Elizabeth questioned as she scanned the rest of the search group, looking for McKay. She slapped at John's hands as he tried to rest them on her hips. "And where's Doctor McKay?"

"I'm afraid that he ingested a large amount of the Jarboa fruits we had on display and has lost consciousness," he noticed Elizabeth's alarmed response and quickly clarified," It is a harmless substance, and normally does not affect people in this way. However for a certain few, it acts like a inebriant. Colonel Sheppard appears to be suffering the affects also."

Elizabeth remembered admonishing Rodney for eating so many of the fruits before she left to explore the village, and John snatching up two for the both of them. She didn't really like the bitter taste but John said his tasted sweet. It clicked - the ancient gene.

"If we had known it would affect them we would never have offered them, as I said only a certain few are ever affected, and it has been many years since they have affected one of my people or visitors. I apologize."

"You couldn't have known Brovine," Elizabeth reassued, grabbing onto John to stop him falling, face first, to the ground. "However, I should contact out Doctor to make sure everything is ok."

Two of Brovine's men stepped forward, each of them taking one of John's arms and leading him, protesting, back towards the village.

"We will escort you back to the village, and I will personally escort you to the gate."

"Thank you."

-----

Two days, and several of Carson's amused comments later McKay and Sheppard were finally almost recovered from the after effects of the fruit, though Carson still wanted to keep them in, just in case. Lorne's team had come through the gate to carry the two inebriated men back to Atlantis, much to everyone's amusement. Elizabeth had followed them back leaving Ronon and Teyla on the planet to reassure the Dorvia people that their friendship was still intact.

Carson ran some tests on the fruit and totally agreed with Elizabeth's assumption. The ancient gene did react differently with the fruit - Elizabeth really doubted that Rodney and John would look at the colour purple the same way again. She actually doubted she could look at John the same way again, which was why she hesitated before she entered the infirmary.

"I think I'm dying," Rodney moaned, his whine carrying across the room and causing Elizabeth to roll her eyes.

"You will be dying if you don't shut up," John threatened, "I'm sure I can get someone to bring me a lemon."

"Oh, ha ha…you're just upset because you were drooling all over Elizabeth. It's not my fault you can't control yourself."

"Rodney…" John groaned, dropping his head to his hands. "At least I didn't dance on top of a table, singing something about dancing fruit."

"That never happened, you're making it up!"

Elizabeth decided to stop the bickering before it went any further. Clearing her throat loudly she stepped fully into view. John instantly flushed, groaned and threw his head back onto the pillow whilst Rodney looked smug and amused.

"How are you both feeling?"

"Oh, just great," John drawled.

"Yeah, I'm very busy you know. Zelenka has probably made a mess of everything whilst I was…" he searched for the right words.

"Under the influence?" Elizabeth offered helpfully.

"Yes…" McKay muttered before looking at her beseechingly. "Did I really dance on a table and…" he gestured wildly, "everything."

"I'm afraid so…Ronon had to drag you down," Elizabeth told him, hiding a smile at the memory. John laughed openly, teasing the mortified scientist. Elizabeth's raised eyebrows and narrowed eyes stopped him though.

John rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "Hi," he offered with a shrug.

"Erm…" Rodney stated uncomfortably. "I'm going to leave you two to…you know…talk and things." He said awkwardly before scuttling off into Carson's office.

"So…" John drawled, clearly trying to hide his embarrassment.

"So…" Elizabeth sat herself on the corner of his bed, arms folded as she met his eyes. Her lips twitched. "You think I'm beautiful."

"Well…I…yeah."

"And you want to kiss me all the time?" John heard the smile in her voice and perked up, a smirk forming as he sat up straighter.

"Yep," he stated more confidently.

"Well that's certainly very interesting," she teased, moving so that her arm rested on the other side of the bed and she faced him.

"Oh really, and why is that?"

"Because I always want to kiss you too," she told him, smiling widely. John's grin matched hers.

"Well by all means don't let me stop you."

She didn't.


End file.
